


down in the valley

by karasunonolibero



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:20:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27201688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karasunonolibero/pseuds/karasunonolibero
Summary: The shopkeeper stares at you.“You should have listened.”
Kudos: 10
Collections: Haikyuu Horror Week





	down in the valley

**Author's Note:**

> can't post on time for my own event, huh? i really wanted to do something kind of surreal and creepy so have this!
> 
> DAY 3 
> 
> **down in the valley** — the sliver of a crescent moon — **a screech to fill you with dread** — golden eyes blinking in the darkness — a special move — **thirty-seven**

Down in the valley lies a village you haven’t meant to find, for the mists blanket the land so thickly you couldn’t see the town until you stood in the main market square.

The people there are as pleasant as the denizens of a hidden village can be, and you wonder if they’ve hidden this place on purpose. Someone stops you, someone tall and beautiful with raven-black hair curled at the ends, gunmetal blue eyes, and a suspicious stare.

“You’re a stranger,” he says. You can only nod mutely.

“You must pass through our village as quickly as you can, and keep these things in mind.

“Do not look any owls in the eyes, especially before the two o’clock rain. Do not speak to the woman outside the cooper’s house, even if you hear her say your name.

“Avoid the river at all costs, even to drink from, for we have lost thirty-seven young ones there over the last decade. And before you get any ideas, do not search for them. We found every last body years ago.

“Ignore the time you see on the clock in the town square, and if you wish to pick flowers, pick only the yellow ones.

“If you see geese, you must count them. If there are more than six, get inside immediately until you hear the bell.

“And finally, do not stay overnight, for there are no inns here and you already know that if you are caught outside when the guardian owl visits, you will never leave this valley.

“Is that clear?”

Nothing about that is clear, but you nod and hurry on your way. You hear the river rushing by, and you wonder what happened to the thirty-seven lost. You avoid the owls—how are they awake?—but the woman outside the cooper somehow knows your name and is shrieking for you. Her voice fills your chest with a cold horror, and though the man warned you, you approach her anyway. You only weren’t supposed to speak to her.

She screeches again and grasps at your hand. You panic and run.

A flock of geese flies overhead, and you count seven before ducking into the nearest building. The general store is packed with people sheltering from—whatever it is. You don’t leave until everyone else does, but before you do, the shopkeeper stares at you.

“You should have listened.”

When you exit the shop, you realize you’ve left the mountains. You don’t know where you just were, and when you return to your own village by the sea and ask a cartographer about the village, they give you a questioning look. “Where?”

You don’t know, but you say it must be in the mountain pass. The cartographer stares.

“That pass was destroyed in a rockslide forty years ago. No one has been through it since.”

You go to sleep, and then moments later open your eyes. For beyond your home, out by the cliffs, you hear her crying out for you.


End file.
